Targeting Violence

Tonight on Chicago Tonight, we are devoting the entire hour to the epidemic of gun violence that has hit parts of Chicago. Some of our guests will include Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton (the mother of murder victim Hadiya Pendleton), Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez. Additionally, we will be joined by a studio audience made up of members of the community, including young people who face the issues of gun violence in their everyday lives.

Our goal is to take stock of where the city is in the fight against violence and to hear from people whose lives are impacted by it. We may not solve anything tonight, but we feel it is our responsibility to keep the conversation going on the most critical issue the city is facing.

I hope you tune in. We will also be live streaming the show on our website and facilitating an online web chat with featured guest panelist Tio Hardiman, the Director of CeaseFire Illinois. Click here to participate.

Thank you for hosting an excellent discussion about gun violence. All elements of the issue were well represented except one which was not discussed at all, the cases of legitimate use of guns for self-protection against violent crimes. These cases are seldome reported by the “would-be vistumes” due to fear about possible legal complications. They are rarely covered by the news media unless it is somehow sensational. Law enforcement agencies have poor records of these cases. However, nation wide there are over two million such cases each year. In a city the size of Chicago and in Cook County, this would certianly represent thousands of violent crime cases which are prevented, and yet due to fear, these people remain silent and have no voice in the debate. I hope you will consider having a similar program to discuss the other side of this issue which has been widely ignored.

Thank you very much for this episode. In Cook County, illegal guns are an epidemic, tearing apart families daily. Chicago is not an island and we can’t do this alone, as gun trafficking is such a scourge because we’re surrounded by municipalities and states with lax laws. Let’s fix the broken system. There are common sense solutions and we should come together to improve life for Chicago families. Right now, just like M.A.D.D. once did as a previous generation of outspoken moms made America safer, the organization Moms Demand Action is working very hard mobilizing volunteers to make a difference (and we’re not just for moms!). So I hope you’ll let viewers know about our advocacy work and how to get involved. Eighty local chapters can be found on facebook (Chicago has the largest chapter). The main website is http://www.momsdemandaction.org – THANK YOU. This coverage of Chicago’s violence epidemic is so important. It truly is the biggest story in our city.